Hey!  My name is Brittany Verbeke, and I am currently a senior at Florida State University (FSU) majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in Geology. Although I was born in Florida and eventually went back to Tallahassee to attend college, I grew up in Castle Rock, Colorado. At FSU, I am a research assistant at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in the Geochemistry department where I study the chemical composition of meteorites through laser ablation mass spectrometry.

The research center in Abisko, Sweden will allow me to help Paige collect methane and CO2 flux measurements along a permafrost thaw gradient, as well as related vegetation characterization, temperature, pH, PAR (photosynthetically active radiation), water table depth, and active layer depth. I will be focusing on collecting pore water samples through a depth profile along the gradient to look at the relationship between the carbon isotopes of methane and CO2 to all of these variables in order to determine methane production pathways. Isotopic signatures are important in predicting further rates and locations of release of methane in similar subarctic environments such as Stordalen Mire.